Way to see, by one metric, if a gig is worth it or not (not in terms of $/hr)

[AlmostAnMD]

I've been at a few sites

A few away rotations in med school
3 different sites in residency
5 different places I moonlit during residency
Now as an attending in an SDG that has quite a few sites

I've collected enough data to form a strong correlation, was wondering if anyone else has noticed this or can comment since this seems to be spot-on in my experience so far.

Lots of people talk about how easy admissions are, how admin listens, shift coverage hours, etc, lots of nebulous things. If you tour a place on an interview you won't really know what it's like till you work there anyway.

But one thing seems consistent among all my sites, and if I rank them by how much I liked them, it coincidentally correlates to one thing:

Chairs.

A really cush gig has a really cush seat.

The worst staffed places, the worst admin, or the worst anything always seems to have the worst chair. The CMG I still work at PRN has terrible chairs and is difficult overall to work at (not because of the chair, mind you, but I'm just seeing a correlation).

My SDG is amazing. And we just got brand new chairs, though the old ones weren't bad either.

I'm just kind of wondering if applicants, to any degree of sensitivity, can look at a chair during their walkthrough and gauge if they're going to like working there.

Or maybe I'm just crazy. Thoughts?


EDIT: reading over this, I just want to emphasize that I am being literal when I say "chair", I don't mean the head of the department, I mean where your ass sits.

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[Angry Birds]

Haha this is brilliant

 

[Vandalia]

If you take care of the little things, the big things will take care of themselves.

 

[deleted547339]

We have pretty decent chairs, except the nurses always steal them. I feel like this is a reasonable metaphor for my job.

 

[deleted547339]

And, come to think of it, the place I most commonly moonlit as a resident had chairs that were really nice when they were new - but had some wear on them. Also pretty analogous to the hospital.

Wth does it mean if you have standing desks?

 

[Rekt]

...
Wth does it mean if you have standing desks?

Staffed by TeamHealth

 

[BoardingDoc]

We have pretty decent chairs, except the nurses always steal them. I feel like this is a reasonable metaphor for my job.

Same. We have about 3 nice chairs in the ED. The nurses invariably take them. If there is another doc on and he/she has a nice chair but the nurses have all the others, I leave the RNs alone. If the other doc has a stool and I have a stool at my desk, I go over and take one of the chairs from them. No one has stopped me yet.

 

[CajunMedic]

Hmm, my now closed residency/hospital was USACS. Chairs were held together with duct tape and good intentions except for the attending's chair. Even it was completely wore out. Worse than that, the ED air conditioning was broken with portable A/C's set up throughout the ED.

Transitional year ED was Apollo MD, then APP. Chairs were OK.

Current program is academic/SDG. Decent, but could use more padding.

May be something to this...

 

[Groove]

We've got terrible chairs, but the gig is decently low stress and not bad at all. I had great chairs at my last gig and it was definitely a nice set up. However, I was very stressed and could tell how far into my shift I was by the bead of sweat that would slowly make its way from the nape of my neck to my ass crack. So, I'm not really sure the chair thing correlates in my case.

 

[MechEDoc]

Agree. N of a bunch, courtesy of internal CMG locums and independent locums. I can't believe I get paid $400-$500k+/yr and have to sit on a crap chair.

 

[RuralEDDoc]

Great observation and I’ll say it holds true to my experience. 4 jobs - best has a well run efficient ED with full call panel and wonderful ergonomic chairs that disappear when broken and returned fixed. Worst job had so-so efficiency with toxic staffing and non existent call panel in high acuity, high volume rural shop and yup - cheap plastic chairs that were always broken.

 

[bky3c]

Yes, this is absolutely true. I've worked in ~20 EDs thanks to locums, and the worst one had a stool, a chair that dropped to the floor when sat upon, and an ancient leather office chair held together by duct tape. And that's when you could find any of them. The best had more beautiful, perfect ergonomic chairs than we ever needed. At the second-worst place I ever worked, one of the full-timers took his own chair to work. Everyone knew it was his, and although people used it when he wasn't around, it was always vacated just before his shift began. (Why didn't anyone take their own chair to the worst ED? It was staffed entirely by locums and one full-timer who lived hours away.)

 

[GeneralVeers]

It's like the "broken windows theory" of policing. You target the small things, like broken chairs, chipped paint, non-functional equipment, and it creates an environment where it's easier to tackle the bigger issues.

 

[MechEDoc]

At the second-worst place I ever worked, one of the full-timers took his own chair to work. ... (Why didn't anyone take their own chair to the worst ED? It was staffed entirely by locums and one full-timer who lived hours away.)

Hah! I've seen the same thing. Several sites with people bringing their own chairs to work.. I bet the c-suite isn't wanting for chairs.

 

[RustedFox]

Hah! I've seen the same thing. Several sites with people bringing their own chairs to work.. I bet the c-suite isn't wanting for chairs.

We actually took up a collection and bought our own chairs for our ED.

But yeah, plenty of nice chairs in the boardroom.

 

[GeneralVeers]

We actually took up a collection and bought our own chairs for our ED.

But yeah, plenty of nice chairs in the boardroom.

The nurses didn't appropriate them?

 

[RustedFox]

The nurses didn't appropriate them?

The case manager did, but she also ponied up for the collection.
No compliant. That girl is a saint.

 

[GeneralVeers]

The case manager did, but she also ponied up for the collection.
No compliant. That girl is a saint.

I love my case managers. We used to have them on until 9PM but administration in its wisdom cut that back to 5PM. Now I have to admit all the old people after 5 just so they can have a discussion with the nice lady in the morning. Guess they earned their bonus for cutting that 0.5 FTE equivalent.

 

[namethatsmell]

I love my case managers. We used to have them on until 9PM but administration in its wisdom cut that back to 5PM. Now I have to admit all the old people after 5 just so they can have a discussion with the nice lady in the morning. Guess they earned their bonus for cutting that 0.5 FTE equivalent.

They also earned it by increasing the # of admits.

 

[bravotwozero]

Not all admissions are money makers for the hospital. The can't walk/poop demented senior that sits in the hospital for weeks on end before being placed somewhere is not going to make the hospital money. Hospitals particularly take a hit on full admissions, when they get denied by insurance companies who say the patient doesn't meet criteria for a full admit.

 

[GeneralVeers]

They also earned it by increasing the # of admits.

When we are full and boarding the hallway, these admissions really make things worse. Let's but demented, sundowning Grandma in a bright hallway surrounded by noise and strangers for 24 hours.